DHS Issues All Supplemental H-2B Visas for Second Straight Year

The Department of Homeland Security will release more than 64,000 supplemental H-2B visas for fiscal year 2024, exhausting a congressionally authorized discretionary cap for the second consecutive year.

A forthcoming interim final rule announced Friday will authorize the additional temporary work visas. The added H-2B visas will bring the total to more than 130,000, including those issued under the regular annual cap of 66,000.

Employers have pressed the Biden administration to offer the maximum number of visas to address a worsening labor shortage in seasonal industries that was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

H-2B visas are most heavily used in the landscaping, hospitality, and seafood processing industries, although they have faced more competition in the annual lottery from other employers struggling to fill seasonal jobs.

Congress has authorized the DHS, in consultation with the Department of Labor, to add up to 64,716 H-2B visas under a discretionary annual cap, depending on labor market demands.

Like regulations issued for the previous fiscal year, the temporary final rule will designate 20,000 supplemental visas to workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras as part of efforts to reduce economic migration from the region. This year’s set-aside also includes workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.

The rest of the supplemental visas will go to returning H-2B workers employed in the US in the past three fiscal years.

“The Department of Homeland Security is committed to maintaining strong economic growth and meeting the labor demand in the United States, while strengthening worker protections for U.S. and foreign workers,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Friday.

“Our maximum use of the H-2B visa program also continues to build on our commitment to expand lawful pathways as an alternative to irregular migration, thereby cutting out the ruthless smugglers who prey on the vulnerable,” he said.

Employers had already exhausted visas available under the normal statutory cap for the first half of fiscal 2024 by October, DHS said. A bid to replace the supplemental visas with a returning worker exemption to the statutory cap fell short in the House appropriations process earlier this year.